saline giant A thick and extensive salt deposit, produced by the evaporation of a large hypersaline sea. In north-western Europe, for example, the Zechstein salts, which are mined in northern Germany for rock salt and potash, were formed during the Permian by the evaporation of water from a partially barred marine basin covering more than 250 000 km² (see Zechstein Sea). Similar extensive evaporite deposits were also formed further south during the Miocene by the evaporation of part of the Mediterranean.

saline giant A thick and extensive salt deposit, produced by the evaporation of a large hypersaline sea. One example of a saline giant is the Miocene evaporites of the Mediterranean, which formed by the repeated evaporation of the Mediterranean Sea. Another is the Permian-aged Zechstein salts of north-western Europe (see ZECHSTEIN SEA), which formed as a result of the repeated evaporation of a partially barred marine basin which covered more than 250 000 km².